New Dawn
by Sprattfish33
Summary: AU: Symbiotes have conquered Earth and the survivors are separated into three groups. In a twist of fate, Earth may be saved, but the human race may not be.
1. Chapter 1

People often expect some sort of magical answer to the really big problems that appear. A knight in shining armor, or a great army appearing to save the day. Perhaps it's a disease that is killing everyone and somehow, they discover the cure and save everyone and usher into a happy ending.

But often enough, that isn't the case. Sometimes we have to watch as everything and everyone we know and love burns around us, and feeling the crushing despair of not being able to do anything about. Or, we accept that we can't do anything about it and move on. But some people just won't let go. And this can lead to very disasterous results. Who am I you ask? I gave up the meaning of names a long time ago. Besides, in my world, you don't want anyone to know your name. I live my life on the run, because if you don't run, either they find you, or someone else does. And the results aren't good any which way. Because here, people will kill you and cannibalize you. Just to stay alive. My world is one ruled by fear and desperation. One where if you stop to save someone, you both die. One that no matter how hard you try, you can't wake up from the nightmare. And sometimes, you are the nightmare

Cold, empty, soul sucking. Many words can be used to define space, but no one had expected this. 3:27 am. A research facility is observing a meteor hurtling towards earth. Many simply expected it to burn up in the atmosphere, but to contrary belief, it actually crashed into a large sand dune in a desert. A recovery team was immediately dispatched to retreive the metoerite before someone else did. The process was completed without a hitch and the team returned it to the facility. The lead scientist immediately began to examine it.

"First, we need to see if there is any sort of valuable mineral or element within the stone."

The scientist brought a large machine forward and flipped a few switches. A purple light shone forth and began to wash over the meteorite. A cable ran from the machine to a large computer, which automatically did the math and graphing to determine if there was anything of value within, and what it might be. The scientist walked over to the moniter and looked at the readings. However, they only proved to be more intriuging. The results showed completely random spikes at differing levels. The computer was indicating that this pattern was not behaving like any known element, or any inanimate object for that matter. So what was inside that rock?

The answer came quickly and terrifyingly, as a cracking sound began to be heard from the meteorite. All the assistants and scientists began to back away from the lump of stone as it broke open, and a strange gelatinous substance spilled out, onto the table. One of the assistants causiously approached it with an examination tool and hesitantly prodded the goo. immediately it sprang to life, shooting up the tool, onto her hand, and proceding to engulf her entire body. Her screams were drowned out by the many others who were running in terror, trying to escape the lab. As they ran down the hall, one of the scientists triggered the evacuation alarm, signalling everyone in the lab bolt for it. Soon the entire building was empty. Save one.

The former assistant was wrapped in a inky black cocoon that ocasionally pulsed like a heartbeat. Short seconds later, the cocoon was absorbed by the aforementioned assistant to reveal a humanoid creature with skin the same inky black as the cocoon, clawed hands, large muscles, strange white eyes shaped something like half of the ying yang, and a maw of razor sharp teeth. It surveyed the room and took a step forward. It stopped. It raised it's arms and tendrils of black goo shot out of it's body, creating pod-like constructs along the walls. Once it was done in the examination room, it stepped out and began to spray the strange goo all over the facility. The construction of it's nest had begun.

It is now a year later, and the world is in chaos. The nest has expanded. It now covers a quarter of a kilometer in diameter. It is much taller. A sort of throne has been erected in the center, where the first creature, now dubbed the "Queen", spends it's days. The world's armies have sent strike teams to destroy the nest, but they never come out. Instead, they become hosts and slaves to the offspring of the first one. Heavy artillary has no effect on the nest. Symbiotes, they have been dubbed. They find a host and take control of it. Mind, body, and soul. You can never escape it once it gets hold of you. However, they seem content to stay within their nest and wait. Whatever the reason, no one is complaining. But that all changed too.

Two years after the crash. The Symbiotes have begun attacking cities. Many of them bare a different insignia on their chest and sported different colours, but how this is done is unknown. What is known however, is that the symbiotes can absorb another of their species into their mass, and transport it from location to location. This allowed them to keep assimilating more hosts and make more nests. It was also plain to see that they were evolving as time went on. They had already built up an immunity to explosive projectiles and were apparently adapting to take local fauna as hosts. This may have explained the insignia on the chests of the host humans. A symbol to represent the first host the symbiote had. It was discovered though, that high frequencies caused them pain, but the problem was their sheer numbers. They never killed. Instead, they would pin their victims to the wall with some of their mass and wait for another symbiote to take the human as a host. Their numbers were growing steadily and steeply. Finally, the governments of earth decided to instead of fight the threat, to retreat from it.

They all pooled their resources together and built a massive wall and a city behind. Afterwards, they constructed a sonic projector to create a bubble of sonics around the settlement, protecting everyone within the walls from the dangers they faced. But, they now faced a grim reality. They could not save everyone. The world's remaining humans had three months to reach the walls before they were closed for eternity. Anyone who didn't make it was worse than dead. The city was designed to accomodate ten million people. Only one million made it. And so the gates were shut, never to open again. The remainder of the population outside was doomed to eventual assimilation.

However, some took the horse by the reins and figured out that they needed to get on the move. And these people are now known as world runners. They never look back and never stop running. They keep on the move and ahead of the flood. They were the first survivors.

Now our story catapults forward hundreds of years. The amount of hosts is dwindling and the number of symbiotes are now fixed. Most of the hostless symbiotes roam the ruins of cities. Skyscrapers are covered in vines and ivy. Some even have large trees growing up through the middle of said skyscrapers. The world runners are still around an are more numerous than before. They have developed the techniques to stay undetected by their hunters, but are still caught on a 50/50 ratio. The remainder of those who didn't learn to stay ahead of the symbiotes formed packs and stalked the land in search of food. Their intelligence lowered to the level of a beast, with a single minded goal of locating sustanense. They will kill anyone and anything in there way, but the sight of a symbiote sends them running in fear.

And this, my friends, is where our story begins. In this land ruled by fear and desperation to survive. In this ignorance of the inside towards the outside. The fact that they never bothered to look at the outside and see the tormented people who live in the ninth circle of hell.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello my lovely readers, and thank you for having a gander at my story. I will be leaving a description of my characters at the end of the chapter, so don't hate. Drop a review as well plz?**

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><p>The Rippers had been chasing him for an hour now and he was starting to wear out. He knew he should have gone the long way around, but he had noticed a hosted symbiote down that path and knew that he would have a way tougher time getting past that thing as opposed to outrunning a band of Rippers. However, they were making lots of noise. And noise was a bad thing. Very bad indeed.<p>

He vaulted a broken divider and swiftly slid across the hood of a car. He needed to find a decent hiding place that was also easy to escape. He pulled a knife from the pocket of his tattered running shorts just in case, and skidded underneath a shadowed outcropping of concrete. Just as he suspected. There was a large hole underneath it, indicating there was a stash of goods here. Something to distract them with. He quickly sifted through the things that would be most useful to him, threw the items he didn't need into a large sack and hurled said sack out into the open. He then turned the corner and kept sprinting.

"That should give me five minutes if I'm not lucky. It should get them to stop altogether if I am."

Five minutes was all he needed to get out of the city and into the open plains. The only animal life you were inclined to find out here were rodents and the occasional wild cat. Symbiotes favoured areas with lots of shadows and nooks to wait for a potential host to come along unsuspectingly. Even still, occasionaly they would transverse the plains to go to a forest, where lots of world runners and Rippers hid caches of supplies. Or they went there to expand a nest. It was very rare was it to find one roaming the plains.

Ethan stopped for a break. His breaks usually consisted of five minute of eating stale bread and drinking old water from a dented waterbottle. First rule of survival in this world was that you take what you get. He stopped and looked up. On the horizon was the old settlement that protected all that were within. He had mixed feelings about the place. On one hand, it was protecting millions from the horrors of the outside world, but on the other, they never took the risk of letting people from the outside in, due to fear of them unknowingly playing host to a symbiote. He understood their logic, but they forgot that the sonic shield would protect them from that. It was paranoia. A fear that only the guards along the wall lived with. No one else knew of the dangers of the world as those who witnessed it first hand.

Ethan had been born into a world of fear an chaos. He had been taught from the beginning that to survive the storm, you needed to stay ahead of it. He'd watched people being killed, then eaten and outran hosted symbiotes when occasion called. All of his experiences had molded him into who he was now.

He pushed those thoughts out of his head and packed his things back into his travel pack. Time to start running once more.

During the meantime, within the city, a heavy debate was being held in the court. Apparently, a symbiote host had managed to infiltrate the walls and was now hiding among them. The room was divided. Half of those in power were dismissing this as a rumor meant to spread hysteria and chaos throughout the city. Others believed this to be true, and demanded that the city be searched to the foundations. These debates were common. The paranoia stemmed from those who were in power and had seen the horrors of the outside during their duties as guards before all this. They believed that the symbiotes were hiding among them as they spoke and occasionally tried to kill someone in the room out of pure terror.

Not that anyone else in the town knew. As far as their knowledge went, the symbiotes were never going to penetrate the defences of the city. In fact, it had been nicknamed Helms Deep after J.R.R Tolkein's fictional fortress. Of course, people forgot that aforementioned fortress had indeed been penetrated, but it had required inside knowledge of the weaknesses of the walls.

The city itself was a combination of rustic and hyper-modern buildings. Technology was used o it's fullest, but there was still a feeling of welcome and comfort.

It was currently 3:30 pm, meaning that school was officially done for the day. Many of the classes were in some way related to defence of the city, but no one seemed to mind. However, there were a small handful of people who questioned what was known about the outside. They wondered why we made no attempts to find out more, to learn how to fight them. Instead, they were all taught common knowledge of how to drive them off. Those who strived to learn more were looked down upon. Shunned. But rare was it, to have one who was still in their teen years be a part of this small handful of people. Ana was her name.

Ana walked down the cobbled road towards the two story house where her family lived. She was thinking about history class. They had spent a vastly boring two hours learning about how the citizens dealt with those accused of being a host to a symbiote. First, they locked them in a chamber and bombarded them with sound to kill the symbiote if it was there. Should it not be, they would be thrown outside the walls out of sheer paranoia. The fear of these things was so great, that a parent would willingly exile their own child from the city in an attempt to keep the creatures out. More often than not, these people were simply interested in learning more about them and somebody who thought that they should be removed would start a rumor, or accuse them of being a host.

"Seemed a bit dramatic to me" Ana muttered to herself. She really didn't care much for the history of the town. She'd rather learn about the history of before the city was constructed than hear the same things that were forced into their heads since the moment they were able to understand their parents. Putting her mental groaning aside, she turned the knob to front door of her house and stepped inside. She didn't even bother stating she was home. Her parents probably weren't home yet anyway. Her mother worked in weapons development, trying to come up with new weapons to kill the symbiotes. She was an easy enough person to talk to. Her father was a patrolman, walking the walls surrounding the city. He always put on a cheerful smile whenever he was home, but in reality, he was broken. The images of the land outside the walls scared him deeply. The creatures he saw and the screams of unfortunate souls that were caught were enough to drive a man insane. Ana walked up the stairs to her room. It was rather small, with just enough room for a dresser, bed, nightstand, and writing desk.

She deposited her bag beside her nightstand and sat down at her desk. She pulled a semi-old laptop out from a drawer on the desk and began to do research on symbiotes like she had been for a about half a year. She was still very much afraid of them, but the more she learned about them, the less frighting they seemed. She opened an article about how a wave of symbiotes once attempted to breach the walls, not knowing about the sonic field that barred their way. needless to say, they didn't get the welcome they were expecting. Half of them died, along with their hosts, and the rest simply retreated back to their various nests.

"I wonder if their are any other weaknesses they have..." She whispered to herself. She closed the article and began searching again.

Night was approaching. Ethan raced through the streets, leaping and sliding over obstacles. He had, in his typical luck, managed to walk head first into a building controlled by Rippers. Now, he was trying his best to outrun the screaming mob behind him. He really wished they'd keep quiet. The screaming was bound to attract the next wave of nasties in a few minutes. However, he was already tuckered out from a hard day of running and wouldn't be able to use any diversions he had for they would only encourage the symbiotes to come after him. And as good as he was at running, he was running on empty and had only barely escaped a symbiote when he was fully rested and ready to go. It seemed that tonight was going to be his last unless he could ditch these obnoxiously loud creatures and find a decent cover.

He saw his chance. A large building with thick vines growing out of it. He rushed through a hole in the structure and began to climb for his life. He could here the mob screaming as they approached the building. He muttered something to do with uncivilized behaviour and leapt to safety on the third floor. Then, he heard the sound of vines being tugged. They were climbing up after him. He cursed and found another vine and snaked his way up. Hopefully they would stop at the third. moving as quickly and as silently as possible, he darted to another vine. He reached the top, then cursed again. There was another, smaller group of Rippers, sleeping peacefully on the ground. He slowly backed up and began shimmying up another vine. He was halfway, when a bloodcurdling scream broke out a floor and a half down. Instantly, the Rippers below him opened their eyes. Ethan held his breath and finished the climb.

"Hopefully, they'll start fighting and kill each other off." He whispered to himself. He was almost right. Three Rippers noticed the vine shaking and began to climb up to investigate. In the meantime, the rest of them had begun fighting each other in a brutal battle to the end. Ethan cast his eyes around. There was no holes, no vines, nothing. He was trapped. He spun around, hearing the shuffling of the Rippers slowly climbing up the vine towards his corner. This was it. He drew his knife for a last stand.

At least, that was the plan, until he was suddenly yanked from the ground, towards the ceiling, and pretty much glued upside down to said ceiling. He cast his eyes about frantically, trying to shake loose. But the sheer exhaustion coupled with his sudden fright was causing him to black out. In the short seconds before he lost conciousness, He realized exactly what had happened.

He had just been caught by a symbiote.

**Hopefully you read the story first before skipping here. Anyway, here's the descriptions.**

**Ethan: 16 years old, 5.7 currently, black hair, green eyes.**

**Ana: 16 years old, 5.5 currently, black hair, blue eyes.**

**Also, Rippers are people who went mad after the conquering and have mentally become beasts.**


	3. Chapter 3

Ana was in a particularly foul mood. She had been called down to the office because she was accused of passing notes. It took her half an hour to prove she was innocent, and by that point, the classroom was already coming up with wise cracks. She spent the rest of the day trying to find a way to get back at the accuser and trying to find a way to escape the annoying aforementioned wise cracks. The only upside was that she managed to escape history when school was for some unknown reason, ended early. She spent the rest of the day roaming the streets and catching up on homework. She was mentally cursing the numbskull who had decided to pin the transgression on her in every way she could imagine.

She looked up and noticed it was starting to get late. The sun was already setting. She didn't really care though. Her parents always had to work late. She threw her belongings into her bag and began the walk home. She looked out at the sky beyond the walls, wondering what was out there.

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><p>Ethan groggily woke up to the sun beating down on his face. He slowly pushed himself upright and rubbed his eyes. Suddenly, the events of the previous night hit him like a mightning bolt.<p>

_"Ah, your awake. I was becoming concerned."_

Ethan spun his gaze from side to side, looking for the strange voice.

_"Down here."_

Ethan cast his gaze down and saw a symbiote on the ground, a single tendril connected to his foot. His heart leapt into his throat.

_"Calm down. I'm not going to harm you."_

Ethan began to slowly back away. The symbiote remained perfectly still. Finally, the tendril disconnected from his foot.

_Okay... I'm really confused now._

The symbiote remained perfectly still. It seemed to be waiting for something. Ethan watched it cautiously. Finally, he decided to try talking to it.

"So, based on what I've observed so far, your species would normally take a human as a host at first opportunity. Why have you left me alone?"

The inky black goo made what he equated to be an exhasperated shrug. Then he realized.

"You can't talk to me unless we have physical contact right?"

The blob made a sort of motion that vaguely resembled a nod. Ethan thought for a second.

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

He lowered his hand to the symbiote and let it extend tendrils to meet it.

_"Well, you certainly catch on quick. And to answer your questions, our two species are more alike than you think. For example, we are all different in some way."_

Ethan took several moments to digest this information.

"So, you aren't going to turn me into a fanged monster of hellish terror?"

_"Correct."_

He spent a few more minutes digesting this new info, then asked another question.

"Are there others like you, who don't force themselves on a host?"

There was a short pause.

_"Yes. The politically correct term for the majority of my species is Overlord. The rest of us are known simply as Abberations. We seek partnership. Not dominance."_

Yet another useful piece of information. But there was one last thing that was unanswered.

"Why did you save me last night?"

_"I thought you would appreciate some help. Besides, we've gotten along so far."_

Ethan thought about it for a minute. It was true, they did seem to understant each other so far. But he was still a bit uneasy about this. The symbiote noticed.

_"I completely understand why you are uneasy around me. But that is another reason I saved you. To begin making amends for what has happened."_

_A symbiote with a sense of morality. Guess the world is full of surprises._

"So, what now."

The symbiote seemed caught off guard by the question. It was silent for a few minutes before answering.

_"That's up to you. I believe we would make a good team, but that's not for me to decide. This is your choice, and yours alone."_

Decisions were something that Ethan had been taught to make quickly. And this one had to have been made quickly, for at that precise moment, A hosted symbiote had just finished scaling the building. Ethan noticed this immediately and realized that they were surrounded. Three more had appeared on all sides.

"Considering that the alternative is to be enslaved by a different symbiote, knock yourself out!" He shouted. Immediately the goo leapt into action. It snaked it's way up his legs, over his chest, and over his arms. It formed a sort of mask with the same eyes as the other symbiotes, but with no crazy mouth. A medium-dark grey spider logo materialized on his chest. The Strength that the symbiote was providing was unbelievable

"Okay, can you give me an instantaneous breakdown of what I can do now?"

A split second later, a flood of information surged through his brain. After he finished absorbing that knowledge, he leapt into action.

He shot a cord of what appeared to be black webbing from his wrist. It snagged on of the enslaved hosts, which he then proceded to swing in a wide circle, clubbing another host in the head, sending it hurtling off the edge of the building. After releasing the cord, he threw a punch at the next one, knocking it clean out. The final one hissed at him, unsure of how to attack. So, Ethan solved the problem in a flash. He shot two web cords at it's feet, then yanked them backwards, causing it to fall over. He then leapt into the air, and hurtled down for a powerful kick. The thing was sent straight through the concrete, and down to the lower levels.

"Well, that takes care of them." Ethan muttered. The symbiote seemed impressed.

_"You've mastered some of your abilities within mere seconds. We do indeed work well as a team"_

Ethan stopped and examined the scene before him.

"Looks like we're clear."

Ethan walked over to the ledge and sat down.

"I sometimes wonder what it was like before everyone fled behind that sonic shield."

The symbiote merely gave a mental shrug.

_"I wouldn't know."_

"Well, seeing as your already here, I don't see any problems with you sticking around."

_"Very well"_

The two spent the majority of the rest of the day discussing their next move.

"Even if we can beat a few of them, we still have to consider that they'll come after us in bulk. Our best move would be to begin moving to another abandoned city.

_"Your idea does make sense. I guess that's settled."_

Ethan nodded, threw his pack over his shoulders, then made a flying leap from the top of the building. He plummeted for a few seconds, then fired a web line and began a slow decent. Soon enough, he was on the ground.

"Time to start running again."

And so, the two new friends sprinted off towards the plains, away from the crumbling remains of a human civilization.

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><p>Ana closed the door to her house and slumped against the wall. She was starting to consider dropping out of school due to terminal boredom and jackasses who thought that someone's misery was funny. The fact that many people around school still thought she passed a note were teasing her for "getting caught", or simply staring at her. It was rather annoying. Especially since it was a regular occurance for someone to pass a note.<p>

"Really. The level of immaturity in that place is astounding." Ana grumbled to herself as she stormed up to her room. She threw her things onto her bed and sat down at her desk, hoping that some research would get the events of the day off her mind. She had just finished logging in to her laptop when the phone rang. The call was from her father. Ana became confused. Her father never called from work unless he needed her to do something. She picked up the phone and pressed talk.

"Ana? Are you there?" Her father asked in a winded voice.

"Yeah dad, I'm here. Why are you calling?" She asked in a concerned voice.

"Listen, you have to find a place to hide, now! Someone broke into the main generator and is threatening to shut off the sonic shield!"

Ana's blood ran cold. That shield was their first and only true line of defence. If a symbiote got through, it could carry more with it and begin assimilating the population within. Many believed that they were the last free humans left in the world. She hoped that they were wrong, for they might be humanity's last hope.

"I'll be okay dad! Just don't get yourself killed!" Ana hung up the phone and shot out the front door.

She darted through the streets looking for a good place to hide in. Finally, she came to the library. It was large and had dozens of good hiding places. It also had a good view of the generator so she could see what was happening. She began to seek out the best spot. After careful observation, she spotted it. A storage area on the third floor of the library that overlooked the generator. She could see transports of soldiers heading towards it with everyone aboard.

"They certainly understand the weight of the situation." Ana murmered to herself.

At the exact same time, a squad had gone into the building to prevent the lowering of the shield. They were all armed with sonic rifles and pistols, just in case the maniac was actually a human host. Then, they heard the sound they all dreaded. A red strobe light began to flash and a siren activated. The shield was down.

Outside, panic was ruling the streets. Everyone was trying to hide from the potential menace that could be passing the border guard as they spoke. The military had split into two groups. One to guard the generator, and one to defend the city. Two more squads entered the building, praying to anyone that they were not too late. Suddenly, the sound of gunshots tore through the silence in the facility. One of the men dropped, and the rest began to fire their sonic guns down the hall. They heard someone wailing about an earsplitting sound. They immediately drew their pistols and fired. The wailing stopped. They found a man lying dead on the ground, a pool of blood slowly forming around him. strapped to his chest was a bomb, with a detonator in his hand. They quickly disarmed it and located the control room. After some tinkering, they managed to get the shields back online. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. But this had been to close a call. Were they truly safe?

A black shape stalked stealthily through the streets. Lithe, yet muscled, it hissed silently to itself. The pain it had endured to enter had been great, but worth it. This was the perfect place to begin a new nest. But it had to be silent about it. Discovery would get it no where. For now, it had to wait and plan. It slunk out of the light, and began searchin for the perfect place to observe and hide until the moment was most opportune. Unbeknownst to it, however, it was not unnoticed. A dark blue mass of goo with black tinges silently slimed after it, determined to keep up.


	4. Chapter 4

Sunday. A day hated by most as it signifies that the weekend is over and that your daily lives will resume. Children will be off to school, Adults will be off to work, and the general labour of five sevenths of our week is spent. This doesn't apply to outside the walls of the safe haven constructed so many decades ago, but in an attempt to resume a normal life, people within keep using it.

But many are in a deep fear that those days may come to an end, for just hours ago, proof arrived that there was indeed a symbiote hiding somewhere in the city, and that it was attacking victims. Even more than ever, people stared terrified at one another. Even at their own loved ones. They shrieked in terror if something brushed their shoulder. They carried weapons on their persons at all times.

The weapons development branch of the city's research facility was being thrown into overdrive. Everyone knew that if they could capture a live specimin, it could greatly increase the speed of their research. On the other hand, they knew that every moment the symbiote spent within the city increased the chances it would create a nest, thus creating more symbiotes and eventually enslaving the entire city.

However, what was not known, was that there was another symbiote roaming the dark alleys. Not known that is, but to one.

Ana had been convinced that what she had seen was just a nightmare she had when she had been sleeping, but the proof was there in black and white. She had seen it with her own eyes. But that wasn't the part that scared her. What scared her was that there was another symbiote on the loose. This one didn't seem hostile towards humans thus far, but the fact was, she had seen it and that black one fighting. She had seriously considered running to the authorities and telling them that she had been present at the fight scene, but she realized something.

If she told them what she saw, it would create a massive panic and possibly have her tried for lying if people accused her of it. Another thing was that she had witnessed the whole thing, and somehow ended up at home in bed. It spooked her. If she told the authorities, they might try to kill her under the pretense that she was hosting the symbiote. She had read about what happened to people who were accused of that, yet were innocent. She didn't want that to happen to her.

So, she kept her silence, hoping that they would find it before it was too late.

Instead, she devoted herself even more to her research, although she seemed to be hitting a dead end. She couldn't find anything else that she didn't already know about. It was starting to get frustrating. So, she copied all the notes she'd taken and stored them in a drawer, resolving to pick up where she left off. But for now, school was starting in ten minutes and she needed to move.

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><p>Ethan waited patiently, hunched on top of one of the few trees that dotted the massive plains between the forests and cities. A symbiote with a bear as a host had been pursuing him for close to an hour now, and finally he had the advantage. He didn't make a sound. Not even a breath. The strange creature was passing underneath him now, growling and sniffing the air.<p>

Ethan decided to try out a trick the symbiote had told him the previous day. He extended his hand out in front of him, and before his eyes, it morphed into a two foot long, single edged blade.

_Wait for it... Wait for it... Now!_

He dropped out of the tree and sank the blade into the creature's skull, killing it instantly. He flipped off and continued his long run towards the shield. He had decided that since the symbiote had given him the power to fight back, he might want to keep an eye on the shield. Especially since the shield had dropped recently.

_"Be vigilant. With the recent drop of that shield you mentioned, the Overlords will be waiting for another such event to take place."_

Ethan silently acknowledged the symbiote's warning and found a small outcropping of rock, jutting out of a hill to set up camp, next to a small pond of clear water. He created a sort of "canvas" with webbing and built a small fire pit. After deciding that his camp was satisfactory, he began to search about for flat stones. After finding said rocks, he propped them up against the fire pit where the greatest heat was found. He then pulled out two strips of dried meat. He dunked them in the pond, added a small dash of salt to them, and threw them on the heated stone.

Fifteen minutes on the rocks had thoroughly fried. He ate them quickly, then took up a position on the hill to keep watch over the gate. The symbiote was correct. Every once and a while, a symbiote would slink by, keeping it's eyes trained on the shield, which was only visible by the distortions created by the ultrasonic bubble.

"Can you hear anything beyond the shield?"

The symbiote waited a few minutes before responding.

_"Faintly. The shield is causing a distortion of sound from within it, but I can confirm there is at least one in there. It's injured, but alive and it won't stay injured for long. We can mend the wounds of our hosts in minutes to days, depending on the type of wound it is. However, something inflicted by another host requires more time, as we grant out hosts the ability to leave traces of a special venom that slows the healing process of any creature down. For creatures with symbiote hosts, this is reduced to almost normal."_

"Woah, woah, hold the monologue. I can inject venom into people I attack? You do realize that you should have told me this sooner."

_"It only happens when you inflict damage with a sharp appendage. Blows of sheer force that deal only large bruises and broken bones will not poison victims. In other words, the bear host you defeated with that blade attack will have been injected with venom, but the creatures you defeated when we first bonded were not."_

"If I ever forget that, remind me."

Ethan waited on the hill, crouched in preparation to bolt forward if the shield dropped. He waited for several minutes, watching patiently as the sun dipped lower and lowed on the horizon. The symbiote and him had established a share in the responsiblities for watching. Ethan was the eyes, while the symbiote was the ears. Ethan felt much more safe with someone else watching his back.

* * *

><p>Ana was starting to appreciate some aspects of the panic that the symbiote had induced. All her schoolmates were too terrified to go about their usual mockery of the odd students out. With them finally off her back, she could put a smaller margin of concentration towards her studies without sinking too low into the deep dull. At the end of the day, she took a path used often by the residents of the neighbourhood to get home. She brought her things up to her room and pulled out a book to read. She hadn't spent much time reading the books she had because of the pet project she had put on hold.<p>

She had read three chapters when she decided to go get something to eat out of the pantry. After some consideration, she decided on instant pasta. She turned on the stove and placed the pot on the element. After that, she grabbed her book and lay down on the couch to wait for the water to boil.

Fifteen minutes later, she dropped the pasta into the boiling water and began the waiting game again. She slumped back on the couch and opened her book, but was interupted. The phone was ringing. Ana got up and checked the number. It was her mother.

"Hey mom, why are you calling? It's not even six'o clock."

"Honey, we were investigating the crime scene and discovered residual traces of symbiote mass, different from the samples we took from the wall. Another symbiote is within the shield."

Ana felt somewhat releaved. They had found out that the second symbiote was at large. She quickly masked her reaction with feigned surprise.

"What?! How?!"

Her mother sighed and continued.

"I don't know, but we're trying to find it. The samples of the gelatinous substance that was used to pin that poor man to the wall are really pushing our research forward. Soon, we'll have a way to track them. See you soon dear."

Ana turned the phone off and replaced it in it's cradle. She went back to the stove and checked the pasta, which was almost ready. She picked up her book and finished two more chapters before the pasta was ready.

After her meal, she went back upstairs to keep reading the book. She had read almost a quarter of the book when she realized that it was getting late. She slipped a scrap of paper in between the pages and went off to go through her evening rituals, unaware that something was out in the dark, looking for her.

A large, muscled shape silently crawled on all fours, like a beast, through the streets. It's massive tongue testing the air. It silently slinked into a slightly more lit alleyway and lowered it's head to the ground. It hissed, licking it's jaws. It was closing in on it's prey. That infernal meddler had seen the last of it's days, just as the witness would. It prowled onward, seeking a kill.

* * *

><p>Ethan hadn't moved in hours. So far, the shield was running perfectly, and although he was still concerned about the functionality of the shield, he was also starting to get board and cramped. He had established a system for watching the shield in relation to how much time rest was required. He would keep an eye on the shield for two hours, then sleep for one. He also had small meals every one and a half hours of his watch. But now he was exeptionally bored<p>

"Okay, I gotta work some of this out."

Ethan immediately began to do some sprinting in the general area to loosen his muscles and patrol the camp he had established. After he finished, he returned to where had been waiting before, his eyes focused on the shield, looking for anything that suggested a problem. The waiting game, oh how he was beginning to hate it.


End file.
